an if we try. We will give up our mornings to work, and
the afternoons to pleasure. There is very little making in a blouse--
three seams, and the sleeves, that's all! Four days are quite enough;
besides, it is really five, for we will begin this morning."

"Now? At once? But I haven't thought, I haven't planned, nothing is
ready! Surely it would be wise to wait, and think it over first?"

But impetuous Peggy could not be brought to acknowledge that
procrastination could ever be wise. If she had had her way, she would
have been hard at work hacking out her blouse within ten minutes of its
first suggestion; but fortunately for all concerned Arthur appeared upon
the scene at this minute, and put down his foot at the mention of
sewing.

"Not if I know it, on a beautiful summer afternoon! Leave that until it
rains, or I don't need your society. Now I do. I want you to come over
to the vicarage with me, while I pay my congratulations to the bride.
I've got an offering for her too. Something I brought from town, and I
want you to carry it for me."

"So likely, isn't it?" sniffed Peggy scornfully. "It shall never be
said of me that I trained my brother so badly that I carried even an
umbrella in his company! What is it, Arthur? Do tell us? What have
you got?"

But Arthur refused to tell. He slung the box on the crook of his stick,
and led the way across the fields, smiling enigmatically at the girls'
inquiries, but vouchsafing no clue to satisfy their curiosity. There
was evidently some mystery afoot, and the expectation of its unravelment
gave a spice of excitement to the coming visit. The box contained
something nice; Peggy felt sure of that, for when Arthur gave a present
he gave something worth having. How pleased Esther would be, and how
embarrassed! What fun it would be to witness the presentation, and help
out her acknowledgments by appropriate cheers and interjections!

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

When the vicarage was reached a reconnoitre round the garden discovered
the murmur of voices in the schoolroom, and marshalled by Arthur the
three visitors crept silently forward until they were close upon the
window, when Eunice hung modestly in the rear, while her companions
flattened their faces against the panes. A shriek of dismay sounded
from within, as Mellicent dropped a work-basket on the floor and buried
her face in her hands, under the conviction that the house was besieged
by wild India